Softball, Track & Field, Cross Country
Favorite athlete: Rhys Hoskins
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Robbing an over-the-fence hit from our school's rival this year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When I helped out the other team by going into right field but went in full catcher's gear.
Music on playlist: Any country song
Future plans: Penn State University (undecided) 2&2 starting at the Altoona campus and ending at University Park
Words to live by: “No pain, no gain”
One goal before turning 30: Have raised a pet duck
One thing people don't know about me: I can solve a Rubik's cube in under a minute.
By Mary Jane Souder
Chloe Kramer isn’t the first athlete to compete in two sports in one season, and the Upper Moreland senior certainly won’t be the last. Chances are, however, she’s one of the most ambitious.
At last weekend’s SOL Freedom Division Track and Field Championships, Kramer – a softball player first and foremost - competed in four events: triple jump, javelin throw, 800m run and the 4x400 relay, earning silver medals in the javelin and relay. And oh, she also landed a gold since Upper Moreland won the team title.
“SOL champs – it was one of the best feelings ever,” Kramer said.
It’s hardly a surprise that her coaches in both sports sing her praises.
“I’ve had the privilege of coaching Chloe for the past four years, and in all my years of coaching, I have honestly never had a student-athlete like Chloe,” UM track coach Doug Smith said. “Along with being a phenomenal athlete, she is a total team player, and she would always push herself to her limits and beyond, striving to be the best. She’s amazing.”
“Chloe is an exceptional kid,” UM softball coach Melanie Martino said. “Softball is her love, but she runs track, but her track coach said to me she definitely makes a difference by being able to run spring track.”
Kramer was certainly a difference maker on her softball team as well and even caught the eye of a parent of a rival team.
“He asked me before we played them the last time – ‘Where’s your center fielder going?’” Martino said. “I explained to him that I’m literally trying to talk her into going as a walk-on to Penn State-Altoona because in my opinion she could play at an even higher level than that, hands down.
“His comment was, ‘She has to be one of the best center fielders I’ve ever seen,’ and his daughter plays high level softball.”
For her part, Kramer, who also runs cross country, is just grateful her two coaches allowed her the privilege of competing in two sports this spring.
“The coaches this year just clicked,” she said. “They worked really well with me, and together it was just…boy oh boy.
“I’ve loved it. From February when softball workouts started twice a week to having softball and track every day to softball every day to track occasionally to back here in May just simultaneously every week. I could not have a better end to my senior year.”
Especially since the 2020-21 school year – with the nation in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic – began with so much uncertainty.
“My heart is so much more full this year,” she said. “Last year I was practicing outside alone hitting off a tee, but it’s not the same as being out on the field or being out on the track and just being able to actually do stuff with everybody, the whole positive vibe around,” Kramer said.
Kramer, according to Martino, plays a key role in creating that positive vibe as one of three senior captains.
“She gets along with everyone, everyone like her, and she just keeps going,” Martino said. “We were struggling against Tennent the first time we played them, and she’s the one that comes in off the field and says, ‘We’ve got to stop playing like we’re trying not to lose and we have to start playing to have fun. We love the game of softball, and we have to play like we love it.’ It changed the tone of the game.”
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With parents who competed in sports when they were young, Kramer tried her hand at numerous sports. She played soccer, she swam, she played basketball, and she even danced for a year. Softball is the sport that stuck.
“As I’ve grown up with the sport, it’s a nice way to be involved with a team while still getting your individual shine,” Kramer said.
She briefly played travel softball with Impact but was mainly involved with Upper Moreland Little League although she lost her final season last summer to the pandemic.
“I always felt like it was too late,” Kramer said of joining the travel circuit. “It was 10th grade and I was like, ‘Wait, I probably actually should do this.’”
So did she ever seriously consider playing in college?
“It wasn’t really something that was in the front of my mind,” Kramer said. “It was in the back of my mind – ‘Oh, I could really play in college.’ Right now I’m still on the fence.”
A swing player as a freshman along with her two fellow seniors, Kramer stepped into the starting lineup as a sophomore in the outfield, her position of choice when she reached an age where balls were actually hit to the outfield.
“Not when we were younger because I watched people stand there, but I want to say sixth grade on – outfield was the majority of where I played,” she said.
Listening to Martino tell it, Kramer has played it extremely well.
“She’s making diving catches in the outfield,” the UM coach said. “There’s a picture of her robbing someone of a home run hanging over our fence. She literally tried to rob one the other night and literally took the whole fence out because they have one of those portable fences.
“She is one of our most consistent batters, hands down. She bunts, steals. I time my players, and she’s the fastest kid on the team. She leads the team in stolen bases easily, and she’s a gifted student. She’s done Girl Scouts. She’s literally the whole package.”
Ask Kramer what she enjoys most about the game, and her answer underscores her passion for softball.
“I could go on and on,” she said. “I love running the bases. Honestly, the adrenalin rush that you get from not knowing if they’re going to throw or not, getting dirty with sliding and everything. I love getting into pickles, delayed stealing. Just running the bases is so much fun.”
Kramer got her first taste of track in eighth grade when she opted to not play softball for her middle school team.
“We weren’t the best, and I was the secondary pitcher,” she said. “I wanted to stay in shape and I wanted to try something new, and I always liked running.”
Kramer was the MVP of the cross country team last fall and the MVP of the softball team this spring. Throw in the fact that she was a key contributor to the track team’s run to the Freedom Division title, and it’s been quite a spring.
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Kramer’s senior year away from sports has been anything but traditional. In January, Upper Moreland went from virtual to hybrid, and since March, Kramer has been attending five days a week, a welcome return to normal.
“It makes time go by so much faster,” she said. “I was just sitting there, I would stare at the same thing every day. I would roll out of bed, sit in a chair, and roll back into bed.”
An active participant in student life, Kramer is vice president of UM’s Key Club.
“We haven’t done overly much this year,” she said. “We’ve been to JRA (Jewish Relief Agency) where we pack boxes and we deliver food packages to a local apartment complex. This year’s been a little tough.”
This year, she was one of three overall chairs that led Upper Moreland’s Mini-Thon to raise money for childhood cancer.
“It was a lot harder and a lot more strenuous to have,” she said. “It worked out. I had a lot of fun. It was shorter than we wanted, but anything for childhood cancer.”
This fall Kramer - an excellent student - will enroll at Penn State-Altoona as part of the 2&2 program and will transfer to Penn State’s main campus after two years. Kramer is going in undeclared but is leaning towards the field of criminal justice.
When next year rolls around, it’s a safe bet softball and track at Upper Moreland won’t be quite the same without her.
“She’s just a leader, she’s always there to lift up a teammate,” Martino said. She’s that player that will literally give me a sac fly and she will turn around and say to my first base coach, ‘Did the run score?’ Never, ever, ever has she asked about her own stats. Never. She only cares about the team first. She’s just an all-around good kid.”
